Offline Coding Activities are one of my most favorite ways to teach coding.
Offline Coding is when you ditch tech centric coding like robots and apps. Instead, you go unplugged.
One of the more popular unplugged coding activities is a worksheet. Worksheets are great because they are task oriented. They are also easy to distribute. Not to mention they are a cheap alternative to robotics and solve the problem of having 1:1 devices.
Other Offline Coding activities include games like Turing Table or maps and grids. Other popular options include puzzles of all types, mazes, and directed drawings. Even LEGOs and jewelry making are popular to teach binary coding.
I prefer to use movement. I’ll talk more about that in a sec.
Offline Coding helps students relate coding concepts through kinesthetic activities. Unplugged Coding also helps them relate coding to everyday activities in their own lives.
Many teachers use Unplugged Coding Activities because they engage children in the Computational Thinking Process.
Chances are you are already teaching the Computational Thinking Process in other curriculum and content areas.
Another reason to use Offline Coding Activities is because it gets kids off their devices.
All of us need a break from our devices. Our eyes get overworked and our brains overstimulated.
Coding requires students to engage in the Computational Thinking Process and apply coding concepts. It demands that they be able to write algorithms that may include simple sequences, conditionals, and loops.
But what coding really demands is critical thinking.
This is where offline coding plays a critical role. Kids can engage in tech free activities that build their problem solving and critical thinking skills.
Unplugged Coding is more than paper, pencils, and board games.
It also includes movement.
Games, energizers, brain breaks. Whatever you want to call them. They all get kids moving. Beyond that, they are perfect bursts to teach, practice, and reinforce critical coding concepts.
Teaching with movement helps students develop gross motor skills, self control, interpersonal skills, and link coding vocabulary and concepts to play. Play makes content more memorable and engaging.
The best Unplugged Coding Activities That Get Kids Moving are the ones that teach CODING CONCEPTS and the Computational Thinking Process.
There are a lot of great energizers (or brain breaks) that do just that.
One more thing that makes these energizers great is that they teach multiple coding concepts!
Stop & Walk can be used to introduce the concept of coding and conditionals.
Get creative with how you play the game to teach the Computational Thinking Process.
Invite other students call out directions. Players have to ignore that, and only listen to your directions. BAM! You’ve just taught abstraction.
Use an ABAB pattern as you call commands. After giving a few, have students predict what direction you’ll call out next.
Increase the difficulty of the patterns as you play to ABCABC, etc. WHOOP! You’ve just incorporated pattern recognition.
Take a look at some of the energizers and brain breaks you already use with students. Chances are, they can be used to teach a coding concept.
When it comes to choosing movement activities that teach coding they key is focusing on which will teach a coding concept or the Computational Thinking Process.
Deciding where or when to use unplugged coding activities in a lesson is entirely up to you.
One structure that works well is below. This structure is perfect for focusing on conditionals.
All of this can be done in a 30 minute lesson.
It sounds unbelievable.
But, that’s because Offline Coding Activities That Keep Kids Moving take 1-3 minutes of lesson time.
In addition to that, they can be used throughout the day.
At any time you see your kiddos need to get the wiggles out, use it. As an extra, they are reinforcing coding concepts and skills.
There are quite a few apps that my students love to use when coding.
A favorite is Scratch Jr.
Scratch Jr uses block coding to create animations.
Don’t worry. You don’t need to know how to code to have students use it.
In the EdTech Guide for Busy Educators, I show you (and your students) how to use it. I even have a lesson that helps you introduce it. Plus, there are 5 ways to use Scratch Jr across the curriculum.
